© By Jack Bradd
C Company 2nd Tour |
 |
Except
for the Machine Gun No.1 and the
M79
carrier not all 'Diggers' carried two of these
grenades but to my knowledge little is known of
their use.
I carried an
SLR and
managed to get hold of a launcher (slang term:
spigot) and ballistite cartridges (very powerful
case with a crimped neck and no bullet). These
ballistite rounds were capable of punching the
grenade through thick weeds and were very
effective. However the
SLR
required the gas plug to be turned upside down,
all ball ammo removed and a ballistite
chambered, the safety clip and pin removed from
the grenade then the grenade could be projected.
A lot of diggers would not fire them twice
because after picking themselves up from the
ground would have to go searching for the
SLR
which normally went in the opposite direction of
the grenade.
After firing, the
SLR had
to be reconditioned to fire ball ammo though in
an emergency it could fire single shots by
re-cocking, not a good position to be in against
AK 47s.
The easiest place to carry the spigot was on the
SLR and it was while we were working with
the 'Cents' (Centurion
tanks) that a 'Turret head' asked me what
was that thing on the end of my
SLR. I
told him it was a silencer, he replied in
amazement 'You Crunchies get all the good gear!'
Most of the time I would use the grenade as it
was meant to be used—by
hand. However this had it's drawbacks because as
soon as I readied one a cry would go up 'Jack's
got a grenade!' and the Section would disappear.
After I threw the grenade the Section would
magically reappear.
After one contact the platoon commander,
Lieutenant Hosie, had a go at me by telling
me to be careful where I threw my grenades as
one had blown him over. I was concerned at this
and showed him my two unused
M26s, then a digger spoke up he reckoned the
'Nogs' had fired
RPGs at the Section (most probably aimed at
myself and Tex our machine gun No1 as we were
big blokes) and one of these had blown
Lt. Hosie over. He bought me a beer at the
end of the Op.
When I talk to diggers today, like Section 2IC
Barry Baker and machine gun No.1 Tex Nevins,
they blame me for throwing grenades at them. I
never threw grenades at 'Bazza' but one of my
grenades bounced back from a tree and landed
under a huge rock that Tex had set the gun up
on. The rock and Tex disappeared in the flash,
smoke and dust but he was OK as pure
Queenslander abuse echoed through the weeds, all
of it directed at me. I learned a few new swear
words that day and that was the only time Tex
was ever a grenade magnet.
ONCE WE WERE SOLDIERS